Message to the President

Dear President Wong:

We are pleased to present the proposed Fiscal Year 2016/17 Budget: Volume One, in the amount of $350 million. As we look forward and launch into FY 2016/17, our institution’s financial outlook is stable. Ongoing financial challenges and necessary capital improvements require continued focus on cost containment and strategic investments, so that we preserve our enduring commitment to provide access and opportunities to current and future students of SF State. We will use the attached budget documents throughout the year to monitor and report ongoing fiscal activity at the Cabinet level. This year’s budget document has been significantly expanded to include the financial breakdown of all Cabinets, trusts and general and non-general fund revenues and expenses. Subsequent volumes of the FY 2016/17 budget document will include miscellaneous trusts, self-supports, and auxiliaries as well. These expansions of the budget document signify our commitment to demonstrate enhanced transparency of University processes and our confidence in the institution’s financial plan.

The budget for Fiscal Year 2016/17 is balanced, composed of both ongoing and one-time revenue sources. We have had significant dialogue with Vice Presidents and our senior budget staff in a variety of meetings to identify their operational needs and incorporate their feedback into the proposed budget document.

Here are a few of our significant accomplishments this past year:

The Metro College Success Program puts first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students on a path of academic success and on-time graduation. In 2015, Metro expanded to enroll nearly 1,400 students in Business, Child and Adolescent Development (CAD), Engineering, Ethnic Studies, Health, Liberal and Creative Arts, Science, and Teacher Education.

SF BUILD ("Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity") is a 5-year, $17.04 million funded grant from the National Institutes of Health program aimed at enhancing diversity in biomedical research fields. In 2015, SF BUILD accepted its first cohort of student scholars.

Bold. Thinking - The Campaign for SF State: FY 2015-2016 was a banner year for University Advancement. For the first time in the University’s history we raised $22,500,000. This has brought the total raised for the campaign to $51,000,000.

In 2015, SF State broke ground on the new Mashouf Wellness Center, an $86.5 million recreation center for the University campus. The Mashouf Wellness Center will provide a major new student activity center near the academic core and student housing. Currently, this project is 50% complete and is expected to open in late spring 2017. The 118,700 gross - square-foot facility is slated to be rated LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum, the highest designation for green construction.

SF State continues to develop and foster the Employee University program. In order to improve staff training with minimum funding, we developed and in-house employee university that provides first-class training to several hundred employees. The program is now being provided to the entire campus.

The campus’ Emergency Operations Plan underwent significant review and revision. In FY 2015-16, you approved the new plan, which will go into effect Fall 2016 under the leadership of the new Assistant Vice President for Campus Safety & Chief of Police.

SF State’s first-ever Dream Coordinator, charged with improving access, success and graduation for AB 540/undocumented students, was hired late Spring 2016 using new Student Success & Completion Initiative funding; she is already engaged in active outreach with and support for students.

This year, the the university welcomed new eateries on campus, adding great variety to the food offerings at SF State. The businesses were selected through a new, highly consultative process, which ensured that the vendors would offer options consistent with demand and through a business model consistent with our values.

The university continued to move forward with a project that will begin to transform Holloway Avenue into a campus main street, providing much needed student housing, student support services, and retail and commercial offerings.

In this year’s budget, the campus has made investments in increased Academic Resources, Capital Projects, Information Technology improvements, and covering the campus portion of recent salary adjustments provided to labor organizations.

These investments should prepare us for Student Success Graduation Initiative 2025. Chancellor Tim White has articulated an urgent need to dramatically improve the graduation rates for CSU students. At San Francisco State, we have committed to raising our own graduation rate from 51 to 69%. The five main reasons students leave SF State without graduating are course availability, inadequate advising, academic difficulty, financial challenges, lack of engagement and bureaucracy. During the 2016-2017 academic year all cabinet areas will collaborate to address these challenges. Our driving goal is to depart from ineffective past practices and generate innovative thinking to advance student success for the long term.

We appreciate the opportunity to submit the Fiscal Year 2016/17 Budget Volume One for your review and approval. We have taken great care in preparing these summary reports for your consideration. I would like to provide special thanks to my budget team and executive office staff who worked numerous nights, weekends and long hours to prepare the budget we present to you today. I look forward to the opportunity to discuss.